Rosewood Breakout

During the Shield of Light's voyage, one of the first planets the crew stumbled upon was the garden world of Epsilon Circini. It was a veritable paradise, the oceans crystal clear, the open fields long and sprawling and the beaches were pure white sand. It was little wonder why it had already been so quickly settled by Concordat colonists.

The surprise of finding such a verdant world was quickly replaced with an even greater surprise. Initial scans had shown it to contain multiple intact ruins from the Empire in Antiquity. When surveyed even closer, they were in a livable state, easily housing an initial population with no need of industrial capacity. For The Shield of Light, it was a golden egg, the very thing they had been sent to discover,

And now the emptiest ruin housed the one hundred or so rag-tag prisoners. They were split into groups and marched from the transport shuttle, armed guards herding them towards the accommodation zone, bright smiles on their faces. When one of them tripped on a piece of grating, the guards were quick to rush to his aid, helping the weary mechanical being back onto his walking apparatus.

They were given leaflets instructing them they were free to move as they wished, but first needed to inform the guards of where they were going and what they were doing. Each of the prisoners were also assigned a concordat councilor, to assist in any emotional stresses they faced.

As a final passing note, the group of prisonersrefugees were kindly asked to assemble in the main hall after settling in their accommodations.

For now, it seemed the Vathari group had a moment to rest easy. At least until a free ship could pick them up.

The Vathari refugees assembled in the main hall, having been given ample chance to clean, charge, and otherwise attend to themselves. Concordat doctors were at a loss, and could hardly give a robot a clean bill of health. Instead they ran a few rough sense tests and a team of engineers confirmed that their limbs and minds seemed to be functioning more or less as a human could. It was all best-guess, of course. They could hardly reach down into the source code, after all.

Now, a Concordat refugee facilitator entered the room, flanked by what appeared to be unarmed guards. All of them were clad in red heavy uniforms and black duty slacks, standard uniform during the chilly months such as these. The guards stood at the main entrance, while the refugee facilitator took the stage to speak to the refugees. The facilitator was all smiles, though his eyed betrayed a sadness. His brother was a power station worker in the Nereax system, before it was struck by weapons fire during the eponymous battle there.

"Welcome to Concordat space," he said. "You are on the frontier world Epsilon Circini. I suspect you are closer to home than anywhere else in the Concordat Corvus. I know many of you had a rough time on the journey in. On behalf of the Throne and the entire Concordat, I express our deepest apologies for your treatment and sympathies for those you lost. This has been a tremendous case of mistaken identity. We detected monolithic, self-replicating vessels in your space that had attacked our planet and we feared you were they. Watch."

Footage from the Nereax incident played on the wall behind him. Interspersed with emergency broadcasts and newscasts was footage of the probes themselves. An undeniable trio of Hekatonhieres probes decelerated into the Nereax system, boomed over the Excalibur's PA system with their lies, and launched Orion-drive spacecraft towards Nereax at incredible speeds. While the titan moved to defend her home in short, fast clips of battle, the Vathari watched the screen and saw the civilian power station crumble. Next were interspersed shots of the civilians' funerals, at which the facilitator struggled to maintain composure, and Concordat engineers examining the probes. The film cut out abruptly after a clip from Throneguard's Rockwell's address to Nereax, a famous quote now made a catchphrase across Concordat space: "In spite of these trials, we shall survive."

"When we realized you could not have possibly been the creators of those self-replicating monstrosities, we released you. We were attacked and feared for our safety. We made a terrible mistake, and we seek your understanding."

The facilitator took a deep breath and resumed.

"We cannot repay the grievance we have visited upon you out of fear and anger, but we can teach you in the hopes that we can come together, sentients all, in peace towards one another and against this horrible threat. We hope to teach you some of our culture and values before you are returned to your people. We would like to give you a day to rest by starting the orientation tomorrow. At your leisure, contact a guard and they will escort you to your temporary accommodations. We've arranged that a compound be vacated and stocked for your use. Power, lights, water, and whatever kinds of furniture you might need you should find there. We're out too far to receive the daily extranet updates from the titan jumps, but you should find terminals with basic encyclopedic information there as well."

The refugees were dismissed, free to wander the settlement or retire to the compound at their individual leisures. They would have only a few hours of daylight left to wander, though, for the guards wanted everyone indoors by sunset.

"Knock," came the voice, as a fist battered slightly too hardly on the door. "...knock."

The pause between the knock suggested to the occupant of the room, an unfortunate Vathari refugee, that his guests would not be leaving soon. The first was too forceful, making the metal door rattle in its housing, and the second was almost too light, the sensors of the being barely registering it. Against his better judgement, he pulled the door open.

Facing him, a wide grin plastered on his face, was his Concordat Peer Review Associate and Grief Councillor. His face was a puffy red, and his pupils too large thanks to the . They had been meeting daily for the past week, the organic humanoid assisting the mechanical with any grief, troubles, or even questions he had. The crew taking care of the Vathari refugees had been ordered to treat them as they would severely war-weary soldiers, rife with Post-Traumatic stress disorder and whatever other cocktail of mental ailments they might be suffering.

"...The bell has rung, sentient-intelligence trapped forever in metal casing. Peer bonding time is now in effect. We will companionship, in the bar slash restaurant slash designated food consumption zone." The inflection of the Councillor's voice was wrong and misplaced, further setting the Vathari on edge. "Today, friendcomputer, we will talk on a life, a human, a human body, and a differences."

The bar was not far from the room assigned to the Vathari refugee. He had become quite accustomed to watching people filter backwards and forward, going about their daily lives. The ancient ruins were continually worked upon by the maintenance crew, bringing more and more living space operational in preparation for the eventual colonist drop once the refugees had been transported back to their origin. For the Concordat, finding ruins from the Empire in Antiquity was a prize worthy of a thousand medals, but they were in such a state they were almost never worth reporting. The case was different, here. The ruins were perfectly preserved, almost inviting the masses of people in with a warm, welcome greeting.

This still seemed to ring true even now, with many of the crews making their way through the narrow streets and alleys with a fervent purpose. Each team moved with mesmerizing footwork, stepping together exactly in time with all of the other

As with most nights, the bar was densely packed. There were few free tables, with most occupied by the human majority, however there were a few Vathari to be spotted in the crowd of organic bioforms. None of the patrons payed the two any attention as they found a place to sit, not even a head turn as they entered. The Councillor moved with purpose, finding a free table within seconds.

"So," the Councillor began as he sat, "what does microchip based intelligence wish to ask today? No no! Wait! I read mind!"

Half a second passed as the Vathari looked quizzically at the man.

"Ha ha! I am joke! Kick it back! Relax! Laugh! If I were mind reader, I would be designated Concordat Corvus Special Operations Division, Psi-Op department."

"So, machine parts, I will tell you first of human the body. Then we will question and answer segment."

"Human the body is eleventh most complex The Body currently on planet. Each human unique. Human not not not part of interconnected consciousness network in which each body is a non-independent organims. Human the Body is made from MEAT. Not like a plant, a fungus, a bacteria."

"So, you see, companion, we are not so different. We are more alike than different. Only difference, is that human the bodie," for a sudden moment, all the human patrons of the bar turned to look at the pair, "is meat!" they all cried in unison, quickly switching back to what they were doing.

"Please to answer questions now. Many questions after breach of pan-elemental gateway, travel through many horror and night mare. Questions, go."